Strathmore shines during Communities in Bloom visit

By Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

Hello Chestermere-Strathmore, I wanted to start this week’s article by congratulating the “Communities in Bloom” committee in Strathmore for their amazing work. Thank you to Rob Pirie for inviting me to your event on Aug. 4 and thank you to the Legion and Dobre Foods for the great meal. The Communities in Bloom tour included the Pollinator Garden, Buffalo Rubbing Stone and the Tom Saddler Bridge, amongst other stops. Please get out to Strathmore if you have a minute to see all the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm this town has put into bringing Strathmore into bloom. 

I wanted to chat about “special service compensation” or overtime pay to bureaucrats working in emergencies. As you know, our Chief Medical Health Officer received $227,911.35 as a bonus over her regular salary. 

In fact, 107 bureaucrats received a total of $2.4 million in bonuses, all totaled. I know folks are angry and the frustration comes from a lack of information sharing. Regardless of your feeling around the people receiving these bonuses, the lack of transparency is unacceptable. Here is what I found out when I asked the question about the process. The current policy (although no one will confirm who created the original policy) allows the public service to unilaterally pay overtime when one is required to work continual and extensive hours of more than 45 hours-per-week during an emergency. These payments happened during floods and fires as well. The Deputy Minister of Health is then responsible for requesting the overtime pay. Where it goes from there, who knows. Public servants receiving more than $114,000 are on the “sunshine list,” so we know everyone’s pay, but this process of bonuses should also be transparent. I want to be clear that when I was a Minister, every penny went to the Treasury Board for review. While I appreciate that there is an inquiry, I believe that the answer is simple: just tell the truth. Make sure it is visible when the decisions are made. We should not be launching arrows at our public servants; this is the responsibility of the government and AHS. Imagine how our frontline workers feel – to our nurses, doctors, EMS and other frontline heroes, thank you for all you do. I know that I have spoken out on several occasions about the unnecessary fights that our government had with nurses and doctors, especially when the pandemic first started in 2020. Still, I would like to restate how sorry I am for any pain and suffering we have caused you, and we will fix it.

I would also like to speak about the website regarding the future of policing (www.futureofABpolicing.ca). The priorities we have seen in Alberta Justice are outright bizarre. Last year, according to the department’s annual report, the legal aid budget was cut by $28.7 million compared to the budget approved by the Legislature. Legal aid was cut to instead fund $5 million of expenses for the Coutts Border protest, a $5 million cost overrun on implementing a new version of Microsoft Office, and a $1.6 million overrun on the consultant contracts for the Alberta Provincial Police Force Transition Study, and now a sales website for a proposed Alberta Provincial Police Force – a continuation of a process that has cost millions of dollars without producing anything but reports saying a transition will cost hundreds of millions dollars initially and billions of dollars over time. 

The government has not even approved the Alberta Provincial Police Force, which is already over budget. 

Albertans are asking for better response times and more responsive municipal policing. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees access to justice. Alberta Justice has failed to meet Albertans’ expectations. An Alberta Provincial Police Force won’t change the number of officers funded and cost overruns to date undermine my confidence that transition costs would be reasonable. 

Alberta Justice must focus on its core mandate: ensuring that all Albertans can live in safe and resilient communities while having access to a fair and innovative justice system. 

To that end, informed by consultations with Albertans, I propose to:

• Present evidence of the failure of the Alberta Provincial Police Force Transition to caucus, including the feedback of municipal leaders, and ask the caucus to endorse suspending work on an Alberta Provincial Police Force.

• Ensure funding to legal aid is restored to levels approved by the Legislature and make available cut funds from the 2021-22 fiscal year to support additional legal aid services in the current year.

• Work with municipalities and the RCMP to develop an RCMP recruitment and retention strategy to ensure adequate human resources to meet Albertans’ expectations. 

Always, we love to hear from you. 

(Leela Sharon Aheer is the MLA Elect for Chestermere-Strathmore)